Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party, Minister for Revenue and Financial Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would very much like to thank the member for La Trobe. I note that his wife, Judy, is a very successful small business woman. She is one of more than 16,000 small businessmen and women in the seat of La Trobe who are taking a risk and creating an opportunity for themselves and for their families and, more broadly, for the communities in which they operate. They are helping to grow our economy.

Earlier this year I had the opportunity to visit a number of small businesses in the electorate of Latrobe. And one such small business that the member and I visited was the Nomadic Cafe, owned and operated by Andrew, who has been running that business now for more than two years. He has been running that business very successfully, and it has been growing rapidly. It opens for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and it has now employed more than 25 employees—more than 25 employees!

This business is a very important business because it has now just tipped over the $2 million turnover threshold, which means that Andrew's business benefits from the announcement made by this government in the budget, the tax enterprise plan, that will actually deliver company tax cuts for small businesses with a turnover of less than $10 million—a company tax rate of 27½c in the dollar from 1 July this year. This is going to advantage more than 870,000 small businesses.

We are also increasing the unincorporated small business tax discount from five per cent to eight per cent, capped at $1,000, and that will be for businesses with a turnover of less than $5 million. That will mean that 2.2 million Australian businesses will benefit from this change. Not only that, we are going to be providing tax concessions available to all small businesses with a turnover of less than $10 million. This includes the $20,000 instant asset write-off. This, again, will advantage more than 3.1 million Australian businesses. Now, one of the issues for Andrew is cashflow and one of the other issues is making sure that he can invest in his business, and both of these initiatives actually deliver for him.

But I was asked, 'Are there any alternative views?' I am very sad to say to the member for La Trobe that there are. Those opposite would put a handbrake on the aspiration of small business. They would limit small business from being able to access company tax cuts, from being able to access discounts and from being able to access the instant asset write-off if they had any more than $2 million in turnover.

We on this side of the House want to grow small business. We want them to be able to employ more Australians. We know that since 2007 the small business definition has not changed. We are not talking about it; we are acting.